Policing is on the ‘brink of disaster’ claims Federation chair

18 April 2018

The chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) has claimed policing is ‘on the brink of disaster’ after information emerged showing officers nationwide are owed almost a quarter of a million rest days.

The statistics have been gleaned by a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from the Press Association and show an over-stretched police service.

Up to September last year, some 237,697 rest days had been either cancelled, outstanding or waiting to be re-rostered to some 70,000 officers, according to just over 30 forces providing data. 

And Calum Macleod, PFEW chair, said: “I think this paints a picture of what policing is like in England and Wales at this time - policing is in crisis.”

Figures locally are nowhere near as bad as in other parts of England and Wales but Leicestershire Police Federation chair Tiff Lynch is still discussing the matter with the Force’s senior figures.

“The national situation proves how hard forces are finding it to carry out effective policing after Government cuts have bitten hard into their budgets,” says Tiff.

“Time owed to officers is being cancelled because there simply are not the numbers needed to protect our communities. The situation is at breaking point on a national basis.

“Leicestershire officers already work long hours against a backdrop of rising workloads so, while our numbers of rest days owed are not nearly as high as other forces, we will continue to talk to chief officers to try to see what improvements can be made.”

With the lowest numbers of police officers on the streets in a generation and rising violent crime levels, Calum continued by saying that policing in this country is being stretched to the very limit by a Government which will not listen to the Federation’s warnings.

“We do not have the resources at the moment to meet the demands of the public - whether that be in an event, a terrorist incident, or whether that be from a police officer’s perspective of actually achieving their rest days,” he says.

“Its really important that anybody has rest between their shift patterns because if that isn’t happening, what you tend to find is people getting fatigued very easily. If that isn’t happening and rest days are being banked, its a dangerous situation for the public, it’s a dangerous situation for policing and it needs to be addressed.

“The Government needs to take this situation seriously because its quite clear the model is not working. Officers put their lives on the line for the public day after day. They need to listen, they need to listen quickly, because if they don’t we are on the brink of disaster.”

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has just released a Government blueprint for reducing violent crime but that contained no mention whatsoever of the impact of reduced numbers in the police force. 

Calum continued: “We do not have the resource to engage with the public, all we’re doing is fire fighting going from one call to the next call, dealing with one crisis after another. That cannot continue. If we cannot engage with the public and gain intelligence from them, our policing model fails in this country.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “Policing, by its nature, can be a very challenging and demanding job and it is the responsibility of chief officers - supported by the College of Policing - to ensure that good management systems are in place to support officers in their work.”